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After becoming an overnight sensation on the hit program “Fixer Upper,” Chip Gaines has discovered the importance of maintaining perspective.
Gaines, whose latest book, “No Pain, No Gaines,” is currently out, recalled the exact moment when he realized celebrity had grown to be too much for him to bear.
“When I came to the realization that fame had essentially taken over and consumed my entire existence, it was a bit of a sad moment.”
Gaines was at a flea market that his wife Joanna and their family regularly visited when the incident in issue happened.
The family’s youngest boy, Duke, once walked off but was still about 10 yards ahead of Gaines at the time. But as soon as he arrived, a crowd gathered, eager to meet him.
“We had clearly reached the point in our careers when we were recognizable in public, so the experience had started to feel a little bit routine for us. However, at that same moment, I sort of lost the connection with Duke.”
He explained, “And so I was basically on my way to kind of gobble him up and get him back into a safe place, and at about that same second, I was surrounded by this group of people,” adding that the admirers were asking to take pictures, asking about his wife, and even squeezing his cheeks at one point.
Gaines, who now has five children with Joanna, claimed that the incident changed him and helped him realize how he needed to live his life.
“It was sort of a disturbing series of events only because I realized at that moment I wasn’t able to communicate accurately that I was actually a desperate father trying to get my son into a safe place, but at the same time kind of trying to resonate with these people and trying to not be rude and all the things that we struggle with in a typical situation,” he said.
The 46-year-old co-founder of Magnolia claimed it also gave him a shock that made him realize celebrity had started to rob him of his identity.
“But it was a bit of a shock to me, and I would honestly say that it pushed me into a spiral where who I was in this well-known scenario really overshadowed who I was as a father and as a human,” he added.
“And in some of the major life decisions you have to make in these situations, it sort of forced me to consider whether or not all of this was worthwhile.”
Even from a distance, fans still adore Chip and Joanna Gaines. After a hugely successful five-season run of “Fixer Upper” on HGTV that concluded in 2018, their show “Fixer Upper: Welcome Home” made a comeback to television in January on Discovery+.
